EDWARD DE BONO'S MESSAGE
20th April 1997

New Ideas, Politics & Elections

Many visitors to this site may not be aware that on 1st May there will be a general elction in the UK. What is the role of new ideas in politics?

For eighteen years the Labour party have been in opposition. You might think that they would be brimming with new ideas. You might think they would like to point out that the governing Tories (Conservative Party) had run out of ideas. This does not seem to be the case. No major new ideas are associated clearly with Labour's election campaign. The main thrust of the campaign seems to be:
"We will not raise income tax after all"
"We will not be as terrible as you might fear"

This seems remarkably feeble in the new ideas department.

The governing Tory party have been in power for eighteen years. They are perceived as being "worthy and weary". You might think that they would seek to dispel this image with a crop of powerful new ideas just to show they had not run out of ideas. There is no such crop of new ideas. The main thrust of the campaign seems to be:
"We are doing well, don't let Labour mess it up"
"You cannot trust Labour"

Do new ideas really matter?

Politicians, government and the public service are far behind business in appreciating the value of new ideas. Business has begun in appreciating the value of new ideas. Business has begun to appreciate that competence, information and technology are all fast becoming commodities. The only thing that is going to make a difference in the future are the values provided by new ideas.

In politics, survival, problem solving and crisis management are still seen to be enough. That may be why there is growing disenchantment with the political process world-wide.

New ideas can cut cost. New ideas can deliver fresh values. New ideas can simplify complex processes. New ideas can reduce frustration. New ideas can involve people more fully in their own destiny. New ideas are needed to design the future.

Most people have a very old-fashioned notion of how new ideas arise.

1. They believe that the analysis of information will produce new ideas. Rubbish. The brain can only see what it has been prepared to see. You will only see new ideas in data if you have prepared your brain with a possibility or speculation.
2. They believe that evolutionary pressures will produce new ideas. Rubbish. Evolutionary pressures refine ideas within the same paradigm but do not change paradigms. Indeed they may actually re-inforce the old paradigm. In any case the process is far too slow.
3. They believe that the new ideas happen by chance confluence of events. True. But this is haphazard, unpredicable and not of much practical use.
4. They believe that new ideas only happen in the minds of slightly crazed 'creative' individuals. Rubbish. Creative thinking is a formal process which can be learned and developed as a skill. The process is based on the nature of the mind as a self-organising information system.

*** Every government should have a specific Ministry for new ideas and a Minister of New Thinking. New ideas are every bit as important as sport or even finance.

*** There should be a specific Department of Simplification which has the permanent task of simplifying procedures, methods, taxes etc.

*** In each ministry there could be a Minister for Maintenance and a Minister for Change. Normally the single minister is so bogged down with administering "what is" that there is very little time or energy available for "what might be". For example, the Minister of Education is bogged down by teachers' slaries, difficult schools, examination complaints, classroom violence etc. that there is very little room for innovation.

In almost every area you can think of (business, employment, law, health, education, housing, transport, ecology) there is a growing need for new ideas. There is a need for big new ideas and also for small ones which just make life easier for everyone.

One day the public may demand that politicians do more than just "survive".

Edward de Bono
19th April 1997
London